Successful andor unsuccessful application of organizational behavior Essay

Successful andor unsuccessful application of organizational behavior concepts in any organization - Essay Example Concepts that are inevitably connected with organizational behavior are those which have a direct impact on the above corporate objectives of the organization. The most common among these concepts are the organizational culture, effectiveness, diversity, learning, efficiency and communication. Wal-Mart has been well known for its unique Human Resource Management (HRM) practices, extremely democratic organizational structure/culture and highly successful employee motivation strategies. Organizational culture consists of both the individual and collective characteristics of the employees within the organization. "Organizational culture is a pattern of knowledge, belief, and behaviorit is the form, beliefs, norms, social patterns, the way things are done, the symbols and rituals" (Burton, Lauridsen, & Obel, 2004). Organizational behavior and its associated concepts of Wal-Mart have to be examined against its HRM practices, organizational structure and employee motivation strategies which in turn depend on other variables such as the impact of globalization on the business, government rules and regulations, market demand for and supply of factors of production such as labor and the level of competition. The geographical and occupational mobility of labor also matters. Wal-Mart with a workforce of roughly 2.1 million is the biggest public company in the world by revenue, i.e. US $400 billion (approximately) in 2008. These staggering figures apart the giant grocery retailer has been looked upon as the model American business organization by many analysts and industry experts.Theoretical underpinnings about organizational behavior and the related concepts have been evolving over the years from Taylor's scientific management theory, through human relations theories and theory X and theory Y people to the modern day behavioral theories. This historical delineation signifies a number of aspects about the conceptualization of organizational behavior in the modern business context. Thus a particularly important aspect of leadership research in the sphere of organizational behavior is focused on Social Identity Model of Organizational Leadership (SIMOL). SIMOL is currently in vogue for the sole reason that it serves not only as a behavioral approach to organizational culture but also as a contingency model to study leadership (Kramer and Staw, Editors, 2003, p.283). Its relevance to this analysis lies in the correlation between the organizational behavior concepts such as organizational communication and diversity and corporate objectives such as profits and market share.Next theoretical postulate which has a significant bearing on organizational behavior concepts is the leadership style and the latter with a considerable amount of complexity applies to a variety of business cont exts. For instance leadership style in Wal-Mart is characterized by a degree of democratic delegation of freedom to the staff to take decisions at the operational level. This aspect of the organization is subject to critical analysis for it obviously presumes that organizational behavior engenders a series of culture-centric responses to the external strategic environment including that of competitors' behavior. Corporate strategy in this particular context plays