Learning Organization

Question 1

Learning Organization according to Samson & Daft (2009, pg. 36), can be achieved by creating an organizational climate that values experimentation and risk taking, applies current technology, tolerates mistakes and failure, and rewards non-traditional thinking and the sharing of knowledge. Discussing the extent of TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) being a learning organization, two characteristics most popularized by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline that can be highlighted in this institute are Personal Mastery and Team Learning.

The commitment by an individual to the process of learning is known as personal mastery (Smith 2001). An organization is always looking for a competitive edge over is competitors. One of the ways is to achieve this is to own a workforce that is efficient in learning and catering to dynamic needs of the business market. TCS promotes individual learning considering it an important feature to be a learning organization (TCS 2010). TCS associates are encouraged to develop skills and improve knowledge for fast issue solving. The organization provides ample resources an opportunities to implement the same such as Internal Learning web portals, Business related certifications and Knowledge transfer sessions about various domains with skilled mentors. TCS ensures constant development of its associates and ensures learning activities to be included under goals of each employee for each appraisal year.

Team Learning is the accumulation of individual learning with major benefits resultant efficient and effective combination of expertise and skills to improve the problem solving capacity of the organization (Wikipedia 2011). TCS, being today’s one of the largest IT companies, realizes team learning to be a factor that’s improves its productivity and potential. A work environment facilitating openness curbing organizational structure barriers is ensured. The team members have healthy interaction, productive learning discussions and open communication. Knowledge transfer sessions are conducted for the team members so that they are associated with various domains relating to present business market apart from their work sector. It is understood that individuals impart their knowledge and skills to their team associates for outstanding results.

The characteristics displayed by the organization is testimony as the above mentioned points express how seriously TCS takes personal mastery and team learning to be an effective learning organization.

List of References

Samson, D. & Daft, R.L. (2009) Management. 3rd edition. Cengage Learning. South Melbourne
Smith, M. K. (2001) 'Peter Senge and the learning organization ', the encyclopedia of informal education. www.infed.org/thinkers/senge.htm. Last update: September 03, 2009
TCS. (2010). Tata Consultancy Services. < http://www.tcs.com/about/tcs_difference/Pages/default.aspx> Viewed on 6 January 2011
Wikipedia. (2011). Learning organization. . Viewed on 6 January 2011.

Question 2

Organizational culture is a primary component of functional decision making in universities where its cultural values, like the practice of ones faiths and customs, are principles that sustain connections with our cultural roots. They help you feel connected to a larger community of people with similar backgrounds (AllExperts 2008). One of the core values of USQ is success for its students both on and off campus providing open and flexible education.

USQ is able implement its core value by its encompassing education that is ‘open’ in terms of it being broadly accessible to prospective students of all ages and ethnicity and ‘flexible’ in terms of its ability to cater to the needs of a diverse student constituency in a wide variety of geographical locations and creating a platform for the USQ Brand promise of “Fulfilling lives” (USQ 2009). Being a distance learning student on an off campus facility in INTI Indonesia holds no boundaries for a student pursuing a BBA degree from USQ. Success for students is insured by a highly qualified staff on campus and with option to interact with course lecturer in Australia though quick access university website. All necessary materials are uploaded onto the USQ Study Desk on the main server where every student present or alumni can access their course subjects and view any relevant information including lecture notes, grades, online library and further study materials. A sociable community forum is at hand for all students from around the world to interact on where any doubts or suggestions can be freely discussed. Such ease of information available through the internet makes globalization possible even in education, as students have much more information on where to study and study choices are not limited to national boundaries, academic staff has easier access to sources, materials, and colleagues across the world (OECD 2007).

Values and beliefs are thought to greatly influence decision-making processes at universities and shape individual and organizational are conveyed through stories, rituals, special language and institutional norms (Bartell, 2003). It is important to note that the most successful campus cultures appear to be those that support both group cooperation and individual success as such is the core value at University of Southern Queensland.

List of References

AllExperts (2008). Human Resources: Vision and Values. . Viewed on 7 January 2011.

Bartell, M. (2003). Internationalization of universities: a university culture-based framework. Higher Education, 45, 43-70.

OECD (2007), “Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources”, internal working document, OECD, Paris.

USQ (2009). About USQ: University Strategy. . Viewed on 7 January 2011

Question 3

Being a good manager at international level requires abundance of cultural intelligence and high cultural quotient or CQ, consequently understanding the impact of an individual 's cultural background on their behavior is essential for effective business (Wikipedia 2010). According to David C. Thomas and Kerr Inkson (2004), a higher CQ suggests that a person has higher ability to adjust and blend into new environment as compared to a lower CQ counterpart. Cultural intelligence can be cultivated by learning about cultural diversity, adapting body language according to surroundings and gaining acceptance. The new manager self-test given in the text helps in reasoning self-level of cultural intelligence. Cultural Intelligence is also important for those who function in multi-cultural domestic settings, with people who have different ethnic heritage, religious background, or grew up in a different part of the country (CIC 2010).

1. Having being educated in International Schools in 3 continents it was fair to say that being comfortable around people of different culture comes quite naturally

2. Coming from a Hindu background and having resided in most countries being religious minority one develops a admiration and understanding towards other religions

3. When visiting a new culture, I am observant about response of others to my actions and I can figure out their positive and negative reaction. Hence I can quickly sense whether something is going well or badly.

4. I am always eager to interact with people of different culture as I have an affinity and interest in learning about different cultures and to know about their beliefs.

5. From my personal life experience, I can deduce that I have the ability to befriend people of other culture without much efforts and adaptation to new cultural surroundings comes easily to me.

6. By learning and respecting beliefs and values, I succeed in gaining acceptance which makes me confident about befriending people of a culture unfamiliar to me.

7. I do not change my accent or tone of speech during a cross-cultural interaction as it is rather superficial and uncomfortable for the person I am interacting with. In case there is a difficulty in understanding, I try to explain by using other measures or their style of speech.

8. I consider using appropriate body language as it is an important element of proper communication. A common action may vary from being friendly and polite in one culture to being foul and disrespectful in another. Hence I tend to alter my facial expressions and gestures as needed.

9. I understand the importance of making other person comfortable during a cross-cultural interaction and alter my behavior accordingly.

Ability to function well in culturally diverse situations looks satisfactory but interpersonal anxiety arising from differences with people having different mindset needs to be kept under control. A higher level of tolerance can be achieved by developing cultural intelligence further which would be helpful to control and avoid conflict with people having varied beliefs belonging to different cultures. Another quality that defines cultural intelligence would be inculcating passionate acceptance of what other people do or believe in and having knowledge about diverse nature of societies and cultures around you. After taking the Manager self-test, I find myself suitable to be an international manager having moderate CQ as I have an ease of accepting and adapting to any culture whilst enjoy learning about different cultures and being a part of them.

List of References

CIC (2010). The Cultural Intelligence Center. . Viewed on 4 January 2010

Samson, D. & Daft, R.L. (2009) Management. 3rd edition. Cengage Learning. South Melbourne
Thomas, David C. and Inkson Kerr. 2004. Cultural Intelligence: People Skills for Global Business. Published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc. ISBN: 1-57675-256-9

Wikipedia (2010). Cultural Intelligence. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Intelligence>.Viewed on 4 January 2010.

Question 4

For reorganization of the department, it has been told after analyzing staffing arrangements that job would be easier if two professionals, aged over 60, would retire. The situation requires not only economic but also social consideration on decision maker 's end and an ethically correct decision needs to be made. Out of the four types of ethical decision making, namely- Utilitarian Approach, Individualism Approach, Moral Rights Approach and Justice Approach, the decision to above mentioned situation has been made using the Utilitarian Approach. Hence, the Utilitarian Approach using the three step decision making process ensures the action chosen has the best balance of good over bad (SCU 2010).

Coming to our scenario, the decision making process can divided according to above mentioned steps.

Step 1: There are 4 options available to manager

Step 2: Resultant benefits and harms of each course of action-

i) Laying off employees based on performance and length of service without saying anything bears the potential harm of being unexpected and uninformative to the employees. Assumption of considering older employees to give low performance may be incorrect. A minor benefit would be that a quick decision using authority can be made. The older employees are affected without consideration to their performance and commitment which may be unfair (Wikipedia 2011).

ii) Scheduling a meeting with both employees and asking them to consider early retirement might seem forceful and already decided by the management. This again bears harm of being unfair and uninformative to employees. As a benefit, the decision maker gets the opportunity to discuss the reasons for his action with affected employees.

iii) Scheduling meeting with the staff gives the chance to discuss the situation and get an understanding from them. Honesty is appreciated by employees (Investopedia 2010). The employees interested in severance or early retirement may opt and easily solve the problem. In a case otherwise, the harm is that the older employees would be asked to opt for early retirement who are the affected individuals.

iv) Laying off older workers without intimation can be challenged by the employees on moral grounds. Caution needs to be paid as there 's a chance for age-discriminating lawsuits (BusinessInsider 2008). The good to this action is that it provides a quick solution to current problem.

Step 3: Choosing the best course of action-

Weighing the good and bad of each action, it can be seen that 'Scheduling meeting with all staff and ask if anyone is interested in severance or early retirement ' provides greatest benefit and least harm. The entire staff is involved and is a part of the decision making process which brings down the negative effect of being unexpected and unjust to the employees.

List of References

BusinessInsider. 2008. How to Lay off employees and not get sued. . Viewed on 14 January 2011

Investopedia. 2010. Business Ethics. < http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/business-ethics.asp>. Viewed on 14 January 2011

SCU. 2010. A Framework of Thinking Ethically. < http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html>. Viewed on January13 2011

Wikipedia 2011. Unfair Dismissal. < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unfair_dismissal>. Viewed on 13 January 2011

[pic]

-----------------------

January 17, 2011

Assignment 1

MGT 2002

Prepared by:

Souvik Banerjee
USQ Student
0061009820

References: BusinessInsider. 2008. How to Lay off employees and not get sued. . Viewed on 14 January 2011 Investopedia SCU. 2010. A Framework of Thinking Ethically. < http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html>. Viewed on January13 2011 Wikipedia 2011 January 17, 2011 Assignment 1