Introduction

The study of organizational behavior is gaining more and more importance as time goes by

because organizations are getting bigger and more complex in nature. This is compounded by

increasing globalization. This trend has resulted in a situation where people now have to work

with others belonging to a different culture or race. Organizational behavior can be defined as

“the study of the performance of individuals and groups in different structures and cultures

within the workplace.” (Glossary: Organizational Behavior. 1995-2004). This paper is a study

of a few important topics of organizational behavior. It will apply those topics to see how it can

help a working manager to improve his managerial abilities. The international courier and

goods transportation company, DHL Global Forwarding will be used as an example in this

study.

Background of Organizational Behavior:

The definition given in the previous section shows that human behavior is influenced by the

nature of the structure or organization he works in as well as the cultural diversity that may

occur there. Organized working has been in existence for a very long time even though no

formal studies have been known to be conducted with regard to human behavior within such

organization. An example of ancient and large organized working could be the building of the

great pyramids of Egypt. Formal studies of human behavior in an organization originated only

during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.One of the pioneers of this science was Frederick

Taylor who pioneered the principles of scientific management. But Taylor only focused on

improving performance in the workplace and not on the social and emotional needs of workers.
He focused on breaking down of a task into smaller observable units so that speed and

productivity could be increased. It was to his credit that he took into account better payment,

fatigue, shorter working hours etc. in his efforts to increase productivity

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But in all other respects he equated workers to machines which brought about deep frustration

within the working class. “Nevertheless, the industrial engineer with his stop watch and clip-

board, standing over you measuring each little part of the job and one's movements became a

hated figure and lead to much sabotage and group resistance.” (Wertheim). More humanistic

thinkers bought the human element into the picture and more importance was given to

organizational behavior. It was the Western Electric Study more popularly known as the

Hawthorne Experiments that bought about an awareness of group behavior. The study which

was originally about work performance and working environment also revealed the

sociological and psychological factors that exist in a group as well as the individuals in the

group. Another theory by Douglas McGregor called Theory X and Theory Y pointed out the

assumptions of managers about worker perceptions and the perceptions of the workers

themselves. The former was called Theory X and the latter was called Theory Y and it was

pointed out by McGregor that both the theories were contradictory to each other. Manger

perceptions of workers include inherent distaste of employees towards work, lack of ambition

and creativity, lack of problem solving ability and the need for close supervision. But the most

inaccurate assumption was that workers were motivated only by physiological factors and

security. Theory Y on the other hand contends that in the right environment, people enjoy
work, self-control is more effective than close supervision and that employees are creative. It

also says that they are motivated due to affiliation, self-esteem and self-actualization. The

development of the systems theories during the 1970’s and the contingency theories in the

1980’s paved the way for further studies into organizational behavior.

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Organizational Behavior:

Organizational behavior is not a subject by itself, but is in fact a combination of four other

social sciences namely psychology, sociology, social psychology and anthropology with

economics being used for to understand the economic impact of organizational behavior.

“Organizational Behavior is a unique combination of different disciplines. The predominate

areas are  psychology, sociology, social psychology, anthropology, political science, and

economics.” (Chapter-1, Understanding Organizational Behavior: Origins of Organizational

Behavior).
Organizational behavior is affected by three levels namely the individual, the group and the
organization itself.
Individual level:

a.Ability – Ability of the individual is an important fact in determining organizational

behavior. A person of high ability is bound to have a high level of job satisfaction provided

the work is related to his ability. Job satisfaction will positively affect organizational

behavior of the individual.

b.Values and attitudes: Like ability values and attitudes also play a important part in

shaping organizational behavior. High values and a positive attitude will result in favorable

behavior within the organization also.

c.Personality and emotions: This again will vary from individual. An outgoing personality
and emotions will reflect positively on his behavior within an organization.

d.Perception: This refers to how a person views the external environment and people whom

he is associated with. For example, perception that work is worship will result in a positive

behavior.

e.Motivation: There has been lot of research and studies on this topic, both at individual

and group level. A highly motivated person with regard to his work will exhibit positive

behavior in an organization also.

f.Learning: The learning level of a person and also his ability and willingness to learn will

also have an effect on organizational behavior.

g.Other factors like age, gender, race, culture, nationality etc will also affect organizational

behavior. For example, Japan has a high level of work culture and hence employees are

more sincere to the company when compared to most other countries.

Group level:

a.Group structure: There will be formal and informal groups in any organization. The form

of the group, level of leadership in the group, its size and composition etc are decisive

factors in organizational behavior. For example, an informal group may be formed on the

basis of race and all members of the same race will tend to belong to that group.

b.Leadership and trust: Groups will have leaders and its behavior will depend on the ability

and perception of the leader. Group behavior will in turn affect organizational behavior.

c.Communication: The level of communication within the group will be important in

spreading the views of the group and its leaders. A high level of communication will result

in all or most members being aware of group decisions and actions.

d.Group decision making: This again depends on the cohesiveness of the group. A highly

cohesive group will have common views and decisions and can exert a stronger influence

on organizational behavior.
e.Power and politics: Every group will have varying levels of power and existence of

internal politics. This in turn will affect the organizational behavior of the group and its

members.

f.Conflicts: Conflicts can exist within a group, with other groups or with the organization

itself. A high level of conflicts in any of these areas can result in poor organizational

behavior.
Organizational level:

a.Policies, practices and systems: All organizations will have their own private agenda that

should ideally work in cooperation with the agenda of its employees. A set of policies,

practices and systems would have been developed and put in place. These are not static, but

dynamic and will change as and when the need arises. These factors play a crucial role in

defining organizational behavior.

b.Organizational structure and design: Each organization will follow commonly accepted

structures. Some will be top heavy while others will be more decentralized. Whatever the

form of the structure and design, it will influence organizational behavior in different ways.

c.Job design and technology: Job design will play an integral part in affecting job

satisfaction. The level of technology available is also a factor here. Both these will have its
impact on the organizational behavior in an organization.

d.Organizational cultures: This will play an important part in organizational behavior. A

strong culture or work ethics and well-being of its employees will have a positive effect on

organizational behavior. The reverse will also be true.

These are the broad topics that form part of organizational behavior in any organization. The

selected topics will be discussed in relation to DHL Global Forwarding. Also how a manager

can make use of these factors for the betterment of his abilities will also be discussed.

DHL Global Forwarding:

DHL is considered to be one of the leading transportation and logistics companies in the world

with delivery destinations in more than 220 countries. DHL was formed in 1969 as an

innovative concept in shuttling goods between San Francisco and Honolulu. The company was

founded by Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn and the name DHL was taken by

taking the first letters from Dalsey, Hillblom and Lynn. There were no express delivery

services like the one DHL offered and the company grew rapidly to its present top position of

businesses in its class. The Company with more than 30,000 employees and 4000 offices

worldwide is now a part of the Deutsche Post Group. The company has four main divisions

namely DHL Express, Supply Chain – Corporate Information Solutions, Mail and Global

Forwarding.
DHL Express: DHL Express is a global air and rail based courier and express delivery
company. It offers its services to both organizations and private individuals. The companymarkets its services under

three names namely Same Day, Time Definite and Day Definite.Services are offered in more than 220 countries and

territories.
Supply Chain – Corporate Information Solutions: As the name indicates, this division is

concerned with providing logistics and corporate information solutions to corporate clients and

not to individuals. Solutions to customers are tailor made to their specifications and include

such services as warehousing, transportation and value added services that cover the entire

supply chain of its clients.

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Its clients include companies from diverse areas such as automobile, fast moving consumer

goods, life sciences, retail, fashion and technology based industries. Services include

digitizing, printing, storing, managing addresses, dispatching, and archiving of documents of

its clients.
Mail: The Company offers mail services to individual and corporate clients in more than 200

countries around the world. It also offers integrated mailing solutions to its corporate clients.

Global Forwarding: This paper will focus on this particular division in applying three topics of

organizational behavior. This division was formed mainly for air and sea transportation of

goods and also includes overland services in its European markets. Goods can be transported at

an agreed price and delivered to its destination at an agreed price and date. Services under this

division also include logistics services and customs assistance in various ports. “This business

unit stands for flexible, individualized solutions: national and international full-container-load

and less-than-container-load services - via road, rail or inter-modal transportation. In addition,

our comprehensive customs brokerage services ensure smooth cross-border shipments.”

(Number one in Express and Logistics. 2008). This division has two subdivisions, one for

airfreight and the other for goods transported by sea. They are called Access DHL Global

Forwarding services (Air) and Access DHL Global Forwarding services (Ocean) respectively.

The former offers a range of services bearing names like Air First, Airfreight Plus, Air

Premium, Se Air and Air Value. It also offers value added services, specialized services, special

handling and transportation facilities for industrial projects. Its ocean transport division offers

partial container load facility, full container load facility, non-containerized loads, value-added

services and transportation facilities for industrial projects. The division also offers customized

supply chain management services.

It is proposed that out of the many diverse topics that come under the ambit of organizational

behavior, three topics namely cross-cultural management, leadership and motivation be taken

up for discussion. It will be seen how these topics can be useful to a manager in bettering his

managerial abilities and providing maximum value to his employers and the workers

employees who work under him.

Cross cultural management: This topic is gaining momentum across organizations the world

over because of increasing globalization and the proliferation of multi-national companies.

Companies are in the process of expanding internationally due to the fact that many

traditionally orthodox and closed markets have been opening up for investment opportunities.

An example would be India and China which did not encourage presence of foreign goods and

companies on its soil till the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. It is not unusual to find the top
management positions being held by managers belonging to the home country. Moreover

expatriates have been going abroad to more advanced economies for better prospects and

finding employment in those markets. A person from an Asian country working in the western

world or vice-versa would find a vast difference in cultures and belief of their respective

countries. It is a fact that culture has an important role in beliefs and behavior and this will be

reflected inside the workplace also. Cross-cultural organizational behavior can be defined as
“the study of individual behavior and team processes in which national cultural characteristics
play a major role as independent or moderating variables.” (Tsui, Nifadkar and Ou, 2007, ).

Diversity in culture throws a host of problems and challenges for mangers who are in charge of

multi-cultural employee group. One of the major challenges that may arise is the difference in

language. Many Asian countries still have a majority of their population not being able to

understand English.

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For a manager of DHL Global Forwarding in the Asia-Pacific Region will have to deal with

people from nearly forty countries. Their training division is finding it a challenge to produce

training materials in the myriad languages spoken in those countries. A training manual

originally written in English cannot be literally translated to say Japanese or Chinese. Also it

would be a challenge to find trainers who can speak more than one or two languages. All this

entails additional costs and other resources for the company. A training session which

incorporates employees from Japan and India cannot be done because both of them are unable

to understand the language of the other country. There is no easy way out of this and due care

and efforts have to be taken by the HR managers who are in charge of training to see that
proper training in their respective languages is given to people in each country. Training

materials also have to be developed likewise. Language also poses a problem of

communication of lack of it such markets. The manager who is from the host country will have

to see that he makes himself understood by at least learning the basics of the host country

language. A similar problem will arise if the manager has people from many countries working

under him. In such a situation he will have to see to it that the home country language is taught

to the expatriate employees so that proper communication can take place.

Another major challenge that a DHL manager may face is the difference in work culture. The

manger will find that DHL offices in China may have a high employee turnover whereas those

in Japan will not. Managers in the US are extremely performance oriented whereas Indian

employees are more used to a lenient work culture. All this will be affected by the degree of

influence the employee or employee groups have inside the organization. If the influence is

high the manager might find it difficult to bring about a common organizational behavior

among his employees.

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Hence, the DHL manger will have to be trained in studying the different cultures of the markets

he may operate during his stint in foreign markets. Even then he will have to have a lot of

patience and understanding to bring the corporate work culture into each market. An invaluable

tool that the manager can use is the Hofstede Cultural Dimensions Model for having a broad

understanding and comparison of the cultures of different countries. The model differentiates

culture into five dimensions namely Power Distance (PDI), Individualism (IDV), Masculinity
(MAS), Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) and Long-term Orientation LTO). PDI refers to how the

general population views the distribution of power in their country. Certain cultures will have

unequal distribution with some people wielding large powers and a section with low power.

Individualism refers to the tendency of people to stay alone or belong to groups in their daily

lives. High individualism means people live independently (small families or living alone) and

are able to look after themselves. Masculinity refers to the role and authority of women in

society. High masculinity cultures will show men having the dominant role in most walks of

life. Uncertainty Avoidance is the tendency to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty. High UAI

cultures will tend to plan things meticulously. Long Term Orientation (And Short Term

Orientation STO) is given as attributes that are peculiar to each category. LTO cultures will

have persistence, a sense of order, thrift, having sense of shame etc. STO cultures will have

personal steadiness, face saving attitude, respect of traditions, reciprocation (E.g.gifts,

greetings) etc. (Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions).

Leadership: Leadership quality is an essential factor for any successful manager irrespective of

whether he is working at home or abroad. In fact leadership is important in all areas of human
activity. Leadership can be defined by using the cliché that “it is a process by which one person
influences the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of others.” (Mills 2005, P. 11). There are some
common qualities that all leaders should have irrespective of the type of organization they lead.

They include having a vision, commitment to the organization and the people who belong to it,

taking responsibility without hesitation, taking responsibilities for failure and accepting

accolades for success. Leadership can be classified into different styles. There are autocratic

leaders who hold absolute control in all aspects of work, He will not have participation of the

employee in making decisions and his word will be law in the workplace. This type of
leadership is not very visible today especially in a global environment where DHL Global

Forwarding operates. Then there is the participative style of leadership where employee

participation is sought in all aspects of the working of the organization. Employees are

encouraged to give opinions and present new ideas for the betterment of the organization as

well as the employees. This type of leadership would be ideal for a DHL manager because it

will help in understanding cultural and social differences that may exist in the workplace.

Constant interaction with the employees will help in bringing about a closer relationship with

his multi cultural employees. The third type is where the leader gives a free reign to his

employees in the hope that they will be able to conduct their jobs best in that way. This style

may be suitable in a situation where work culture is highly developed. But it will not be

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suitable for a multi cultural organization like DHL Global Forwarding where different work
cultures and attitudes mix.

Mangers working there should take a not of this fact and should approach a more participative

style coupled with the exercising of a certain among of control and authority.

When DHL became a part of theDeutsche Post, a program called 360 Online Degree Feedback

framework was adopted to integrate its diversity of operations and regions. The program was

designed to achieve three aims:

•
Performance management
•
Talent Review
•

Senior Leadership development Program

The program was an online one whereby its managers across the globe could participate in all

the three areas mentioned above. “The online nature of the system would provide a streamlined
structure that could be applied cost-effectively throughout the new organization’s massive
network.” (DHL 360 Online - Developing a Global Solution fro Leadership Development:
DHL Identify need for Online Solution with Global Reach. 2005). All multi-national companies

with global divisions such as Freight Forwarding face similar challenges and have to adapt and

learn to be able to stay competent. For a manager in a division like DHL Global Forwarding,

the 360 Degree Feedback Program which is an example of participatory management style,

was useful in understanding the needs, aspirations and views of its many employees across the

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globe. They should continue to make use of such programs in future also to cope up with
increased competition from other global and local competitors.

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Organizational behavior and motivation: Psychological and sociological insights:
Website address:http://www.heliu m.com/i te ms/82955-organizationa l-behav ior-and-
motivation-psychological-and-sociological-insights?page=2

Date accessed: 18 July 2008

This is in fact an article on the topic by William Quisenbury. The article starts off by explaining

and defining the aspects of motivation. The next section deals with different theories of

motivation. They include Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, Vroom’s Equity Theory and the

Expectancy theory. The author explains the theories in some detail in the later sections. He also

adds that the Equity Theory and the Expectancy theory and minor theories and hence labeled as

process theories. The Equity Theory is very popular in American organizations according to the
author. He adds that many organizations have successfully implemented many of these theories

and have been able to motivate employees for better productivity. Nearing the end he cautions

that each situation will be different and the employees will have to be evaluated carefully

before implementing OB policies. He ends by saying that it is very important to see that

employees are properly rewarded, their participation be encouraged and feedback be offered so

that they will feel a sense of being valued by the company. This will also help to motivate them

even more.

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Conclusion

The manager in the DHL division would do well to be aware of these theories and put them

into practice. What he should do is to take the relevant ideas from each theory and formulate

practices of his own. People are also motivated by other factors which should also be

incorporated.

They include motivational quotes and stories, ice-breaking games, appreciation, empathy,

workshops, physical activity (in an office environment) etc.

The manager in the DHL Global Forwarding Division can also benefit from what is given

about the three topics on organizational behavior. He should incorporate them and develop a

style of his own that is best suited for the current environment that he is faced with.

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